Happy Birthday … sort of. RHP Edinson Volquez turned 30 on Wednesday and celebrated with his second straight quality start as he locked horns with Red Sox LHP Jon Lester. Volquez only walked one (really, just one), struck out six and scattered seven hits over six innings of one-run ball. Of course, it wasn’t enough to win because Lester was equally good over seven innings (1 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 K).

Make-up work. Although Carlos Quentin misplayed a ball off the Green Monster into a run for the Red Sox, he also provided the only consistency at the plate, collecting three of the Padres’ six hits in the game. Quentin also scored the game’s lone run in the first inning, singling and scoring when Chase Headley singled off the Green Monster and Kyle Blanks drove him in for an early 1-0 lead.

The Bad:

One step forward … . RHP Luke Gregerson looked sharp in the eighth inning only to give up the game-winning run in the ninth on 2-2 slider up in the zone that Jonny Gomes drove to left for a walk-off homer. It’s too bad, too, because Gregerson appeared to have taken a step forward an inning earlier when he entered a 1-1 game with no outs and runners on first and second and escaped that jam with a pair of strikeouts and a fly out to center.

No O. The offense, not the bullpen, is the biggest culprit in this loss, the Padres’ fifth in a row. The Padres managed just one run and have now scored just five total runs in this skid. They aren’t getting clutch hitting and they aren’t stringing much together, either. Also, this can’t be ignored: The Padres were averaging 4.2 runs per game before SS Everth Cabrera went on the disabled list and they are now averaging 3.1 without him.